Who suggested the state motto, "Ad Astra per Aspera"?

John J. Ingalls, a state senator from Atchison, proposed the motto, which is Latin for "To the Stars Through Difficulties." He also helped design the state seal in 1861.
Ingalls went on to become a U.S. senator and gained nationwide acclaim in the 1860s as an orator, according to information from the Kansas Department of Commerce and Kansas Historical Society.